Mortgage rates remain low
Average rate was 5.75%
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, October 17, 2005
McLEAN, Va. -- The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 5.75% for 2005’s first nine months, packaged with an average 0.6 points, reports Freddie Mac, the U.S. Congress-chartered corporation that buys mortgages from lenders and repackages them into investor-purchased securities.
The average rate in both 2004 and 2003 was 5.8%, coupled with 0.6 points.The high point for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, or FRM, was 1981’s 16.63%, and the June 2003 rate of 5.23% is the all-time low since Freddie Mac began its weekly survey. The 1981 rate was coupled with 2.1 points, while the June 2003 rate required 0.6 points.The low point for 2004 was 5.45%, reported in March, combined with 0.7 points; 2004’s highest rate was the 6.29% reported for June, paired with 0.6 points.For the week ended Oct. 6, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.98%, up from the prior week’s 5.91%. A year ago, the rate was 5.82%. This is the highest the 30-year FRM has been since March 31, when it averaged 6.04%. Freddie Mac also reported that 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rates and 1-year adjustable-rate mortgage rates have inched up in recent weeks. The latest weekly rate, for Oct. 6, for a 15-year mortgage was 5.54%, compared with 5.48% for the previous week. The latest weekly 1-year adjustable rate was 4.77%, measured against 4.68% for the week ended Sept. 29.“Mortgage rates have been rising for the last four weeks on inflation jitters caused in part by extended high energy costs,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “Still, we need more concrete data to predict the direction of the national economy, including mortgage rates. “That said, we do think that the economy will continue to grow, albeit at perhaps a slightly slower pace than in the recent past. Mortgage rates will most likely continue to rise with expansion of the economy,” he said.Over the next decade, Freddie Mac estimates more than 50 million families will take on new mortgages. Since the stockholder-owned corporation was chartered in 1970, Freddie Mac has financed homes for nearly 30 million families, equal to one of every six homes in the United States.Since April 1971, Freddie Mac has surveyed lenders across the nation weekly to determine the average 30-year FRM. In 1984, the 1-year adjustable-rate mortgage was added to the survey, and the 15-year FRM was included beginning in 1991.Currently, 125 lenders, representing commercial banks, thrifts and mortgage-lending companies, are surveyed each week. Their responses are weighted by Freddie Mac in proportion to the level of mortgage business that each commands nationwide.
-
Mortgage rates remain low
Oct 30, 2005
Featured Company
-
Wright Labels
Bill and Tom Wright founded Wright of Thomasville in 1961 on the idea that printing was a creative medium and the belief that "a promise made is a promise kept." The Wright brothers focused their attention on providing exceptional printing for the... more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
